Memories, Dreams, Reflections
From The Art and Popular Culture Encyclopedia
|
Related e |
|
Featured: |
Memories, Dreams, Reflections (original German title Erinnerungen Träume Gedanken) is a partially autobiographical book by Swiss psychologist Carl Jung and associate Aniela Jaffé. The book details Jung's childhood, his personal life, and exploration into the psyche.
In 1956 Kurt Wolff, publisher and owner of Pantheon Books, expressed a desire to publish a biography of Jung's life. Dr. Jolande Jacobi, an associate of Jung, suggested Aniela Jaffé be the biographer. Jung was very reluctant to cooperate with Jaffé in the beginning, but because of his growing conviction of the work's importance, he became more engrossed in the project and began writing part of the text himself. In total, Jung wrote the first three chapters on his childhood and early adulthood, the chapter entitled "Late Thoughts," and the chapter on his travels to Kenya and Uganda. The rest of the text was written by Jaffé through direct conversation with Jung.
The content and layout of the yet-unpublished manuscripts was heavily disputed. Jung's family, in the interest of keeping Jung's private life from the public eye, pushed for deletions and other changes. Those involved in its publication demanded massive cuts in the text's length to keep the price of printing down. Jaffé herself was accused of censorship when she began exercising her Jung-appointed authority as editor to reword some of his thoughts on Christianity she deemed too controversial. Eventually, the disputed text (including a chapter entitled "Encounters" detailing some of Jung's friend and acquaintanceships with various people) was integrated into other chapters and Pantheon Books stopped their push for further deletions after Jaffé and others' protest. The book was finally published in 1963, two years after Jung's death. It has remained in print ever since.
On the rhizome
- Life has always seemed to me like a plant that lives on its rhizome. Its true life is invisible, hidden in the rhizome. The part that appears above the ground lasts only a single summer. Then it withers away—an ephemeral apparition. When we think of the unending growth and decay of life and civilizations, we cannot escape the impression of absolute nullity. Yet I have never lost the sense of something that lives and endures beneath the eternal flux. What we see is blossom, which passes. The rhizome remains. (Prologue from "Memories, Dreams, Reflections")
